First, two things.

1. I've been learning how to draw and how to paint for about a year but I have very few paintings. The biggest stopper for me was not knowing how to mix colors. If I only had known those principles :/

2. This class has answered all my questions yet raised some other. But, I know that those answers will be naturally found during the practice.

The exercises.

I was looking for a way to create a limited palette that would help me to masters color mixing and travel fast. And I ended up having way too many colors. I even bought several tubes because I thought I was sure I would be using them. It was before I realized there are issues with cadmium and cobalt. That's why I still use them but I'm looking for substitutes.

I'm using almost only the White Nights paints because that's virtually the only brand sold by pans and tubes in my area. As far as I'm not sure which colors to stick to for now I'm not shopping online.

I used the following colors for the exercises: PY 3 (Lemon) and PY 35 (Cadmium Yellow Medium), most likely PR 122 (Quinacridone Rose, PR 122) and PR 108 (Cadmium Red Light), PB 15 ("Azure") and PB 29 (Ultramarine).

I also tried it on different types of paper: 100% and 70% cotton. There wasn't much difference (if not to consider the texture). However, the 70% paper tends to create some pools. I used two variants of the mixture of warm blue and red on because they are so different and I couldn't tell which color should be in the middle.

The pictures of the 70% paper go first.

Watercolor Mixing - image 1 - student project

Watercolor Mixing - image 2 - student project

Watercolor Mixing - image 3 - student project

Now, cotton paper.

Watercolor Mixing - image 4 - student project

Watercolor Mixing - image 5 - student project

Watercolor Mixing - image 6 - student project

The cadmiums separate with all colors they were mixed with. The effect is fun but constantly stirring them is not.

The all-colors wheel. Good to have the colors close to being able to compare them.

Watercolor Mixing - image 7 - student project

The Class Project

I decided to create two wheels for the class project. One with the earth tones which I happen to have and another one with some alternative colors.

Earth tones: Yellow Ochre (PY 43, PY 1), English Red (PR 101) and Indigo by Vista Artista (PB 15:1, PBk 7). The English Red is so strong that even almost black Indigo couldn't compete with it. I used way too much paint for that reason. And I liked the result so much! I couldn't even imagine that the colors look so beautiful together and in mixes.

Watercolor Mixing - image 8 - student project

I used the following colors for my alternative color wheel: Cadmium Lemon (PY 35), Quinacridone Red (PV 19) and Cobalt Turquoise (PB 28). I incorrectly labeled my red as Quin Rose on the picture. I didn't like the Cad Lemon at all because it looks as if it has some white in it. It does create some pastel-like colors which look pretty nice. But if I was looking for such effect I would rather deliberately add some white in my mixture.

I think that I used the wrong hue as my middle purple. It should be the one between this segment and the blue one.

Watercolor Mixing - image 9 - student project

And still, I like the result very much. Especially how these two wheels look close to each other. I decided to frame them and place them somewhere on the wall.

Watercolor Mixing - image 10 - student project

This class was one of the most meaningful for me. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Lena Zvereva

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